A Lottery to Get Behind

Eric Koreen had an interesting article in The Athletic today on the practice of tanking by NBA teams. Apparently, the league fined the Jazz $500,000 and the Pacers $100,000 for sitting players without cause. Utah is 18-38 and Indiana 15-40. Team fines are like pulled punches; neither should be confused with the real thing. Want to make a statement? Fine both teams $5-$10 million. But no commissioner, in this case Adam Silver, is going to do that because team owners don’t like their employees—which is what Silver is—levying fines that hurt. Koreen went on to make a suggestion I found interesting, to say the least—abolish the draft and substitute a lottery for all non-playoff teams. My God, that’s brilliant. Not only would this work in the NBA but MLB and the NFL as well. It makes so much sense you know it won’t happen.